The ZZ Top Album by Album Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Rose River Bear, Jul 29, 2021.

  1. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    I have been wanting to do this for a while. Hopefully no one will think it is bad timing. Will cover the studio albums only.

    From Wikipedia with edits from me.

    ZZ Top
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    [​IMG]
    ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas, by vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons. Following several changes in membership, drummer Frank Beard and bassist Dusty Hill joined in 1969 and 1970 respectively; this lineup lasted until Hill's death in 2021. Rooted in blues, ZZ Top's style developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and the rhythm section of Hill and Beard. Popular for its live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the similar appearances of Gibbons and Hill—who were rarely seen without their long beards, sunglasses, and Stetson hats—the group has staged several elaborate tours.

    ZZ Top formed after the demise of Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons' previous band. Within a year, the members signed with London Records and released ZZ Top's First Album (1971). Subsequent releases, such as Tres Hombres (1973) and Fandango! (1975), and those albums' singles "La Grange" and "Tush", gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s the band became renowned in North America for its live act, highlighted by its performances during the Worldwide Texas Tour from 1976 to 1977, which was a critical and commercial success.

    Following a two-year break in response to creative stagnation and exhaustion, ZZ Top reinvented itself in the late 1970s with a new musical direction and its now-famous public image. Beginning with its albums Degüello (1979) and El Loco (1981), it experimented with instruments including clavinets, saxophones, and synthesizers. It established a more mainstream sound and gained international favor with Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock. The popularity of these albums' music videos, including those for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs", helped propel them onto the television channel MTV and made the band one of the more prominent artists in 1980s pop culture. The Afterburner Tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour of 1986. After gaining additional acclaim with the release of its tenth album Recycler (1990) and its accompanying tour, the group's experimentation continued with mixed successes on the albums Antenna (1994), Rhythmeen (1996), XXX (1999), and Mescalero (2003). It most recently released La Futura (2012) and Goin' 50 (2019), the latter of which is a compilation album commemorating the band's 50th anniversary. After Hill's death on July 28, 2021, Gibbons announced that, per his wishes, ZZ Top would continue with Hill's longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass. It is the band's first lineup change in 51 years.

     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2021
  2. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    ZZ Top’s First Album

    Somebody Else Been Shaking Your Tree
    A fine opener. A D boogie with some great rhythmic upticks and slide from Billy. The break has Billy with a fine solo with a cool turnaround.

    Brown Sugar
    Top’s homage to Mannish Boy. A slinky E blues with plenty of space for the boogie groove and for awesome Billy fills. Long slower “intro” before the boogie kicks in high gear. Billy sounds a little Johnny Winterish in the break. Great song and my fave on the album. Dusty really cooks along with Billy. Odd turnarounds make it unique.

    Squank
    A blues in C which is not too typical. Dusty on vocals and the key fits his voice. Of course we know that was his preferred key to sing in. Billy plays a nasally sounding tone on the break solo. I am not sure what guitar he uses here but it may be a Fender along with Pearly.

    Goin Down To Mexico
    Another C blues with some funk overtones. Dusty again. The break has a key change to A and Pearly Gates really growls here with those classic overtones. The break gets faster and heavier inch by inch. Surprise ending on G.

    Old Man
    Great R and B type groove in G with softened turnarounds and some Mixolydian blues. Killer guitar solo with some fine R and B harmonies that follow. Cool song.

    Neighbor, Neighbor
    A slinky G blues with a tasty hook and harmony guitars on the transitions up to the break. The break solo has some cool thematic hooks. Decent song.

    Certified Blues
    A fine A blues with a pushy rock groove a la Johnny Winter. Tough interplay in the guitar overdubs in the break.

    Bedroom Thang
    Grindy 7th chords open this walking E boogie. Cool pulloffs on the low E string cement the groove and brighter chords in the turnarounds. Fine song that slinks along. Dusty holds down the break with multiple guitars from Gibbons.

    Just Got Back from Baby’s
    BB King style blues in C. Punchy syncopated chords from Billy. The break has Billy with a BB King style solo with some great vibrato.

    Backdoor Love Affair
    A cool rocking blues with some tough bass from Dusty with shout outs. The long break becomes the outro has some fine layered guitars with a great repeating hook. A decent closer.
     
  3. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Love the band, great idea for a thread but listing Dusty Hill as a previous member, just 24 hours after his death, when we don’t even know if the other 2 will continue the name, seems a tad harsh.
     
  4. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    Probably right. Wiki had it that way. I will change it.
     
  5. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

  6. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    ZZ Top’s First Album

    The first album pretty much establishes the template for the majority of their career putting aside some of the changes to their sound via production and such. The songs are pretty much straight blues at times but the variations on the blues emerge from the start. Softened turnarounds, mixolydian and variations like that. Lyrically a template as well.
    Some questions have arose regarding the gear that Dusty and Billy used on the first album. I hear some Fender sounding guitars from Billy. Not sure if Billy or Dusty used any Marshall amps on the first album or if they used Fenders exclusively. I have read where Billy would use a crazy series of different amps to get his sound but I don't think he confirmed that.

    Dusty with Marshall Amps on stage.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. 99thfloor

    99thfloor Senior Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    I was going to reply to you in the R.I.P. thread, but I haven't gotten myself together enough to write any proper post there. I'd really like to take part and contribute here, maybe help, but I would have hoped (and meant to request) that you could have maybe waited a bit, I am all messed up, this only happened yesterday, I don't think I can get myself together enough to do this so soon... I have been thinking about doing an album-by-album thread on ZZ Top for years and years, but it's always seemed like such a responsibility to do something like that, and I haven't felt up to the task (I am not one to start threads in general), I wouldn't want to miss out.

    Please don't quote Wikipedia for facts and statistics if you're going to do this, everything on the band (from the main page to the album pages etc.) is riddled with mistakes, I have tried correcting things many times, but it always gets reverted. I think you should start with "Salt Lick"/"Miller's Farm" (maybe even include The Moving Sidewalks and American Blues).
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2021
  8. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    I agree. I tried to just post the absolute basics.
    Probably not a good idea I started the thread. Maybe I will let it sit for a month or so.
     
  9. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    Personally I think it's good timing for the thread. Just about everyone who likes great bluesy rock music loves the 70's ZZ Top albums and we'll get loads of positive discussion and reminders of their sublime music. A fine way to pay tribute to the magnificent Dusty Hill.
     
  10. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member Thread Starter

    I thought the same as well. I guess I will see if there is any interest going forward. If not, I can start it back up a few weeks from now.
     
  11. tinnox

    tinnox Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
  12. 99thfloor

    99thfloor Senior Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    It's a good idea, and I am certain there will be lots of interest, it is just a bit soon I thought, I would have wanted to wait maybe a week or so, there is still the RIP thread running (and personally I am in other "therapy" discussions with friends and musicians and I'm going to be doing a daily tribute on Facebook for a week), there is so much right now, taking part in something like this it would be nice to be able to focus fully. It also just feels like commenting on what notes Billy plays in a certain guitar solo, what edits and mix differences are on a single version, what songs they played in concert, etc. (which is the type of stuff I'd really like to do), is not important right now. It also depends on how fast you go, some of these sort of threads seem to be about getting them over and done with as fast as possible.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2021
  13. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    Thanks for pinging me RRB. As it goes, I saw that Tim's Twitter Listening Party threw in a celebratory one for Dusty in form of "Tres Hombres", so I actually listened to the band's first three albums today & would be up for it. But I also wouldn't want to do without the insight from this fellow below ↓↓
    I agree with the first bit although that first single is something I haven't heard yet! (Just never got around to it.) Maybe we can leave the precursor bands until the main ZZ discography has pretty much run dry, it would then provide some nice variety.
    I totally know that feeling. Doing the Status Quo album-by-album thread was the only one I ever took upon myself. I'm glad I did it even if I look back and wish I had done a lot of things differently, but with this board's limited amount of Quo fans it seemed like I was the only one dedicated enough to the band to do it from start to finish. Now I'm supposed to helm three other ABA threads and not doing a good job at all. :sigh:
     
  14. Yankeefan01

    Yankeefan01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tonawanda, NY, USA
    Looking forward to this. I think that it may not be a perfect time to start it but it's also a perfect way to remember Dusty and the great music he was a part of.

    Nothing beats those first 3 albums for me, really the first 5 as Fandango and Tejas are great in their own ways.

    Only saw ZZ Top once but it's been the best concert I've been to. It was "ZZ Top's 1976 Worldwide Texas Tour, Bringin' Texas to the People". The livestock, the suits, the great music, just awesome stuff. I was right down there by the front row in Niagara Falls by the rattler. Great memories.
     
  15. Dodoz

    Dodoz Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Different mixes exist of these early albums, as you all know.
     
    Dave, ex_mixer and Rose River Bear like this.
  16. Yankeefan01

    Yankeefan01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tonawanda, NY, USA
    Absolutely. I only play the original London vinyl releases although I've hear good things about those two vinyl boxes that were released the last couple of years.

    Talkin' about those early three, that 1st album is a real bear to find with a nice cover. Those seems will split if you look at them wrong. Ringwear and staining is also on most of them too.
     
    Dodoz likes this.
  17. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    I assume we would talk about those after Afterburner, since they are an 80s artifact.
     
    Man at C&A likes this.
  18. DML71

    DML71 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Billy has said they will continue.
     
    RayMusicLover and 905 like this.
  19. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I am guessing RRB's notable skills in harmonic analysis of music are not gonna get much of a workout in this "D boogie" "Blues in C" kind of thread.
     
  20. Greenalishi

    Greenalishi Birds Aren’t Real

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Love their first record so much. Brown Sugar is so cool. Doin John Lee an Lightnin then just going into a great contemporary electric groove. Real dry on this record. No reverb or ambience. Fits perfect. Unique sound. Opposite of Dequello.

    Whole album rocks. Real fave of mine. No bad songs. Billy just shows his colors here. You know where he’s coming from but his approach and internal rhythm is unique. Dusty and Frank different from their influences. Not Cream. All three play as one. One groove. On the one. Cool feel and approach. Great record and band. RiP Dusty, you showed em how. Rock on


    I should add, like Stevie Ray and Johnny Winter, they are true students of the blues. Encyclopedic knowledge of American black music and country before the 60s. True love. Texas musicians knew their stuff. People now have kind of stopped with the brits. These guys know their blues. Goin back. Vocal groups, gospel. The roots.

    ZZ is a trip because they did not become stuck or slaves to an era. They evolved. But the roots are always there. They also pissed off their old fans who wanted them to do the same thing over and over. I love that
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2021
  21. Gus Tomato

    Gus Tomato Stop dreamin’ and start drivin’ Stevie!

    Location:
    Cork
    I’m totally for this thread, I want to honour Dusty Hill by reading/talking about the incredible music he made. I totally understand if others feel it’s too soon, but ZZ Top fans all around the world are hurting right now and I think threads like this can help with that.
     
    Ryan Lux, JulesRules, pscreed and 3 others like this.
  22. WvL

    WvL Improve the lives of other people

    Location:
    Birmingham al
    Started something that I had never done before...virgin ears again. I started with the 1st album this morning and am now on Tejas. What amazing music. All I had heard from this era was Lagrange. I know, I should be ashamed.
     
  23. Yankeefan01

    Yankeefan01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tonawanda, NY, USA
    Be careful with those first 3 albums on CD. Kind of hit and miss there as they added synths and crap to those also. What were they thinking?
     
  24. Yankeefan01

    Yankeefan01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tonawanda, NY, USA
    Better late than never. Enjoy!
     
    WvL likes this.
  25. Spaceboy

    Spaceboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Near Edinburgh, UK
    Is the original Japan CD any good?
     

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